International patent publication number WO 2011/000037A1 discloses a proposal for sinking a mine shaft in which earth excavated by a boring machine is transferred into large capacity conveyances in the form of skips which are raised and lowered by a hoisting system installed at the mine surface. On completion of shaft sinking operations the hoisting system and skips may subsequently be operated to convey material excavated during production mining.
In shaft sinking, services are lowered using buckets (attached by a sling) and transported to crews, waiting below to install the services on a shaft wall. This requires the crews to work under a suspended load, which is hazardous.